Arrests made in Pakistani journalist's January murder

New York, April 8,
2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes movement in the case of
the murder of Geo TV reporter Wali Khan Babar in Karachi, and calls for a full
prosecution to break a longstanding pattern of impunity in journalist murders
in Pakistan. Police arrested five men they say carried out the killing in
January.

Police apprehended the men in a stolen vehicle in the town
of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, according to local news reports. Senior police officer Saud
Mirza told a press conference the suspects had confessed to planning and
carrying out Babar's murder on January 13, according to the local Daily Times newspaper. Other suspects,
including the alleged mastermind, Faisal Mota in whose house the attack was
planned, remained at large, Mirza told reporters.

Babar, a Geo TV reporter, was gunned down in his
car in Karachi's
Liaquatabad district on his way home from work. Mirza said the shooting was the
assailants' second attempt at targeting Babar for his reporting on land
seizures and targeted killings by criminal groups.

"We are glad to see movement in this case, but we call for a
fair trial and further investigation into who is behind the murder of Wali Khan
Babar," said Bob Dietz, CPJ Asia program
coordinator. "The mastermind who targeted Babar must be brought to justice to
effectively interrupt the cycle of impunity for journalist killings in
Pakistan."

Local news agency the Associated Press of Pakistan named the
suspects as Faisal Mehmood, Muhammed Ali Rizvi, Shahrukh, Naveed, and Muhammed
Shakeel.

CPJ
research revealed Pakistan
to be the world's deadliest country for journalists in 2010. The country also
ranked 10th on CPJ's 2010 Impunity
Index, which lists countries where journalists are regularly slain and
authorities fail to solve the crimes by calculating unsolved journalist murders
as a percentage of the country's population."